Animal health and welfare

Horses

All horses including ponies, donkeys, exotic equines such as zebras and crossbreeds must have their own horse passport. 
The Horse Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2009 requires that when a horse (includes weaned foal) is moved for the following purposes, it must be accompanied by a valid horse passport:
  • For competition purposes
  • For breeding purposes
  • Out of Scotland
  • To the premises of a new keeper
  • For veterinary treatment
It is an offence for any person to sell a horse without a passport. For all new horse passport applications the horse must be micro-chipped.

Horse passports are a means of identifying individual animals and making sure horses treated with certain medicines don't end up as food for human consumption.

Read our guidance on:

Read The Scottish Government's information on horse traceability.